Amazon accidentally on purpose tips hat to VR content plans

According to a job posting, the company is looking for an exec to help it develop mixed reality experiences for distribution on its SVOD.

There are no secrets in the age of social media. Just ask Amazon. The e-commerce giant and digital content producer has seemingly revealed its plans to produce original VR and AR content for Amazon Prime members in a job posting on LinkedIn looking for a virtual reality experience development executive.

The posting calls for “an experienced content development executive to help develop innovative mixed reality experiences for distribution on Amazon Video. The ideal candidate has overseen premium television, film or game production and has some experience with virtual reality technology.”

Just in case there is any lingering doubt as to Amazon’s intentions, the posting goes on to say that candidates should have experience in both the development of series, films or games at an executive level, and premium content that’s either interactive and non-linear or TV and moives. They should also have extensive knowledge of current virtual reality and mixed reality technology and experience in virtual reality content production.

As reported by Variety, Amazon’s VR ambitions were revealed back in March, again through a job posting. Then, it was looking for developers for VR apps. This new job posting, however, is the first indication that the company had its sights set on the tech for its SVOD service.

It should come as no surprise that the SVOD, which has won Emmy awards for its originals such as Mozart in the Jungle and Transparent, would want to experiment with VR given recent moves by the competition into the space.

Earlier this year, streaming rival Hulu launched its own VR app on the Samsung Gear VR store, offering short-form, VR-optimized content such as as a behind-the-scenes feature from the Hulu original series RocketJump: The Show and short-form content from Viacom and Nat Geo.

Two months after its launch, Hulu’s SVP of ad sales Peter Naylor stated at the company’s NewFronts presentation that the average time spent on Hulu’s app VR is 12 minutes (according to Naylor, the average time spent on all VR apps is two minutes), indicating that VR was a successful venture (so far) for the SVOD.

Netflix has also had a VR app available since late 2015; however, the app only provides access to Netflix’s library, which is not yet optimized for VR viewing.